Bitcoin Falls Below $104k as Fear Index Hits Seven-Month Low

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 😨 Bitcoin breaks $104K support as fear returns

• 💼 Ripple hits $4B in 2025 investments with Palisade deal

• 💥 Stream Finance stablecoin crashes to $0.51

• ⚖️ Samourai Wallet founders face 5-year sentences

Extreme Fear Returns to Market as Bitcoin Breaks $104k Support

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunged to 27 on Tuesday, marking its lowest reading in nearly seven months. Market sentiment shifted to extreme fear after Bitcoin briefly dropped below $104,000 for the first time in over three weeks.

The index fell by half from 42 the previous day. The last time sentiment reached this level was in April, when the index hit 18 following President Donald Trump's global tariffs announcement.

Analysts attribute the decline to reduced institutional demand and blockchain activity concerns. Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the second time this year but signaled no additional cuts in 2025, disappointing investors. 

Bitcoin-tied exchange-traded funds recorded nearly $800 million in net outflows last week, with institutional buying falling below daily mined supply for the first time in seven months.

The index previously reached extreme fear on Oct. 22 at 25 points.

Trying to make sense of the recent blood baths? 😭 Tune in to today’s livestreams!

At 1:00pm ET: Yann Allemann (Swissblock and Cense AG) and Joe Vezzani (LunarCrush) dissect what’s going on in the markets with Laura. Then, former FTX US Chief Brett Harrison joins Steve Ehrlich to talk about perps coming for all of finance and his new exchange, Architect.

📺️ Watch wherever you stream: YouTube, X, PumpFun, or Twitch

Ripple Hits $4B Investment Milestone With Palisade Deal

Ripple acquired custody and wallet technology firm Palisade on Monday, bringing its total 2025 investments to approximately $4 billion. The company disclosed financial terms were not released.

The acquisition follows Ripple's purchase of prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in April and stablecoin platform Rail for $200 million. Last month, the company acquired GTreasury for $1 billion to access the corporate treasury market. Ripple President Monica Long said that corporates will drive the next wave of crypto adoption.

Palisade will expand Ripple's custody capabilities for fintechs, crypto-native firms and corporates. Palisade Wallets provides a flexible API enabling rapid integration of multi-party computation wallet technology, while Palisade Custody offers institutional-grade storage for digital assets. 

The firm maintains deep integrations with XRP, Solana and Ethereum. Ripple emphasized the combination of its bank-grade vault and Palisade's lightweight wallet creates an end-to-end solution for institutional needs.

Stream Finance Loses $93 Million as Stablecoin Crashes to $0.51

Stream Finance paused deposits and withdrawals Monday after an external fund manager reported a $93 million loss in assets. The DeFi platform hired lawyers from Perkins Coie to investigate the incident reported Sunday.

The platform's stablecoin Staked Stream USD dropped to $0.51, depegging from its dollar target. Users questioned the suspension before Stream Finance posted on X, as XUSD had already begun depegging below $1 on Sunday. Labs founder Omer Goldberg noted the depeg occurred after a $100 million exploit on automated market maker Balancer.

Stream Finance operates a recursive looping yield-focused platform. On Friday, the team addressed community questions about discrepancies between its website's total value locked and DefiLlama's listing. 

The platform distinguished between user deposits of approximately $160 million and total assets deployed across strategies of roughly $520 million. Minal Thurkal of CoinDCX stated the incident underscores risks in complex DeFi strategies, particularly those disagreeing with standard metrics.

Samourai Wallet Founders Could Serve 5 Years for $237 Million Laundering

U.S. prosecutors submitted a sentencing memorandum Friday requesting 60 months imprisonment for Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill. The pair pleaded guilty in July to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Prosecutors allege Rodriguez and Hill operated a crypto mixing service that laundered at least $237 million in criminal proceeds between 2015 and April 2024. The illicit funds stemmed from drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber intrusions, fraud and murder-for-hire schemes. Hill admitted in his sentencing letter to inviting computer hackers and criminals to launder proceeds through Samourai.

Federal guidelines suggest 168 to 210 months, but prosecutors cited a 60-month statutory maximum. The Probation Office recommended 42 months for each defendant. Rodriguez requested one year and one day, while Hill sought time served. 

Both were arrested on April 24, 2024. Rodriguez faces sentencing Nov. 6, with Hill scheduled for Nov. 7. The case reflects a broader crackdown on crypto mixing services following Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm's August conviction.

• 📉 Nasdaq reprimanded TON Strategy for selling $558 million in private shares to buy Toncoin without shareholder approval, stopping short of delisting but spotlighting the risks of corporate crypto pivots after the firm’s stock plunged more than 80%.

• ⚡ StarkWare rolled out its new open-source “S-two” prover on Starknet, boosting the blockchain’s speed, privacy, and decentralization by cutting costs, enabling private proofs on regular devices, and paving the way for future Bitcoin-based DeFi features.

• ⚖️ FTX withdrew its plan to restrict repayments in countries like China and Russia after backlash from creditors who said the proposal—potentially cutting off $800 million in claims—was unfair, though the bankrupt exchange could revisit the idea later.

• 🐻 Berachain paused its blockchain and issued an emergency software update to fix a vulnerability tied to the $128 million Balancer V2 exploit, saying most validators have upgraded and a “white hat” hacker may help return the $12 million drained from its own exchange.

• 🔗 FTSE Russell partnered with blockchain oracle provider Chainlink to make data from major stock indexes like the Russell 1000 and Russell 2000 available directly on blockchain networks, expanding access to real-time financial information for developers and institutions.

• 🏎️ Ferrari will launch a crypto token called “Token Ferrari 499P,” created with Italian fintech Conio, allowing just 100 elite members to use the asset to bid on its Le Mans–winning race car and trade within an exclusive “Hyperclub.”

• 🌐 Banco Inter and Chainlink completed a pilot between the central banks of Brazil and Hong Kong that used digital currencies and smart contracts to settle a cross-border trade instantly, aiming to build a cheaper and more connected global trade system.

• 🧬 Nasdaq-listed biotech firm Tharimmune raised $540 million from investors including ARK Invest, Kraken, and DRW to build a digital treasury based on Canton Coin, a blockchain token that connects regulated financial institutions, marking a dramatic pivot into crypto.

• 🧠 Crypto trading startup Liquid secured $7.6 million in seed funding led by Paradigm to expand its all-in-one app that aggregates decentralized perpetual futures exchanges, aiming to give retail traders institutional-grade tools for trading, yield, and risk management.

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